How to climb trad: Helping Mike Boyd attempt his hardest trad lead
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- čas přidán 16. 04. 2024
- Latest in my series on How to climb trad, this time climbing with Mike Boyd, helping him make his hardest trad lead so far.
My book on training for climbing: www.davemacleod.com/shop/9out...
Mike Boyd's video • Can Dave Macleod help ... - Sport
Mike's video from our day climbing czcams.com/video/hKVAKlLSpuI/video.html
Thanks so much for the guidance and support Dave. Couldn’t have asked for better! Hopefully we can work together again soon 💪🙏
You are one of us now, no going back.
Mike, I've never had the pleasure of meeting you and likely never will, but I hope it's not weird too say I'm very proud off you mate. As a disabled and quite unwell person I've been living vicariously through consuming your videos. Keep up the climbing, the e videos are great and the entertainment is so appreciated 👍👍❤❤
4:30 "HIs voice is very calm, but what he's suggesting..." is pretty much the best description of your channel.
Mike making the rounds with all our favourite climbers.
and some sick, selfish part of me grudges him for it... I cannot explain it and I know it's wrong but the feeling remains.
@@Thuky1 yeah ive got the same mixed feelings tbh, but luckily doesnt keep me from appreciating and enjoying these vids. I just think im more jealous and feel like missing out, ive decided to take that feeling as an indication that i really wanna do some trad climbing some day and wish to have this experience
@@Thuky1 I think we're all a bit jealous my guy, don't worry. Videos' still sick though
"What you do on easy climbs will dictate how you climb at your limit"
I mean, this is the perfect way to word it. This is why I keep telling (usually newer) people to never stop doing "easy" boulders or routes, and climb them as perfectly as you can, as part of the never-ending exercise to improve your climbing. Often I see relatively new climbers who are in the sort of exponential phase of improvement, and begin to feel super strong and start thinking that they are somehow now no longer required to care about non-limit climbing. Especially in bouldering I see it a lot, people just stop touching "easy" problems. But easy problems are great - they're perfect for movement and technique drills while warming up. And if you do 10 easy boulders with some solid movement drills every time you climb, you'll rack up hundreds of hours of doing (hopefully) perfect moves. This racks up much quicker than your limit moves, and will almost invariably be better moves too.
/rant over
That’s actually such an insight, I’ve found myself at that point you’re talking about at the plateau after my exponential improvement. I’ll be sure to put the drills in your mentioned
In my early days at the bouldering wall, I noticed the very best climbers warmed-up on the very easiest boulders. It’s an invaluable habit.
At several crags, since making this video with Dave I’ve seen Mike spend time being more precise with his feet. Dave’s really good at explaining it and Mike’s really good at taking it on board and putting it into practice. It’s clear that Mike has learnt to learn things well. Thanks for the video and looking after them Dave.
I think it's also the switch from mainly indoor climbing to trad climbing that places far more importance on your feet and being stable and consistent. With trad being a more slow moving discipline you can't just power through things.
*impatiently waiting for your technique course to come out*
Learning to focus on details on easier climbs is a great lesson to take from this. That was certainly one of if not the biggest thing holding me back from climbing harder. Much appreciated as always.
The boulder footwork lession is A+++ level content. Amazing. And well done to Mike.
The communication and insight is top notch in this one, Dave can really explain things so clearly. I feel like, when he speaks I must listen haha
great video. an afternoon with dave mentoring you would be absolutely invaluable. master at work
Great video Dave, it was a good day out filming and drinking tea with you! 🙏🏼
I just came here after watching the "Climbing Stuff" video about nutrition and Mike's video about your day out. All three videos are brilliant!
What i like particularly about this one, is the technical points you highlighted very well. I'm not a regular climber, because a) i never really felt comfortable with heights and b) with my 115 kg it's hard to find someone that climbs or wants to climb and is heavy enough to catch me on a fall while on belay. There are things like the "Ohm", but it's only for 40 kg difference. This means the person belaying still needs to be 75 kg minimum...
I guess to improve the first point, from my experience in the mountains, hiking, climbing and skitouring, time spent in exposed areas helps get that confidence up bit by bit. But knowing what to look for when placing the foot on the wall etc. is something that barely gets taught. Seeing how you implemented that here, i definitely need to look through your videos! Great work!
I learned to climb by myself after watching Neil Grisham's masterclass years ago and I look forward to the technique videos you have coming up. It looks like these days it's fashionable to show how hard you're trying rather than how well you're climbing. Appreciate the level of detail you always have whenever analyzing techniques, such as Mike's footwork.
Love the demonstration of good evaluation as a guide!
Great that you kept some differences between the two videos. I enjoyed both. Especially the beginning boulder problem analysis on this one.
Brilliant video. This route(Cuticle Crack) was my first trad lead 8 years ago today, with my dad. 4.5 years later I did my first E5(Wild Mountain Thyme), with you. Good times!
I don't do much climbing outside but this made me look at footwork in a whole new light. There's a level of detail I had no idea about and I'm now eager to think about it and experiment more. Thanks Dave and congratulations to Mike!
Thanks for the footwork tips, Dave. Well articulated. Nice climbing, Mike. Peace.
Awesome video! Love the collaboration between my two favourite climbers!!
i really loved the keen eye you have, and had the video to show what youve seen aswell!
Thanks Dave, helps a lot!
Excellent video and really pedagogical!!
I share Dave's sentiment about watching other climbers. A big sign for me that a trad leader is in over their heads is if they are consistently grabbing face holds right next to perfect crack jams, especially hand jams, because they don't have enough crack climbing ability. Not all trad involved crack climbing, but when you're putting in #2 cams, you should be jamming that crack, and if you aren't you should really do more following and work on crack climbing. It's the equivalent of crimping your way up a 5.8 using only the small holds and ignoring all the huge jugs.
I love watching Dave teaching
Some very useful tips in this!
What a grat video! Thanks Dave!
Amazing video as always Dave :)
My comment came true! So glad you two could collab
The approach here is really interesting. Most trad videos you'll find on CZcams focus on the gear placements, but this video doesn't even mention the gear, and focuses largely on the movement, with a brief mention of rock quality. This matches my experience: I've definitely seen bad gear placements, but most of the time, gear is easy to place and works even when the placement is mediocre, because THAT'S WHAT IT'S MADE TO DO. Gear failures, in my experience, are almost always ROCK failures. And a lot of times, gear isn't the most relevant thing to safety: in a lot of cases, my gear is there to keep me from dying, but the consequences of a fall would still be catastrophic, i.e. lots of bones breaking. So the primary form of protection is my movement.
I climbed a pitch the other day where the topout was a long unprotected friction slab. Conditions were crisp and the almost invisible shallow concavities that made up my footholds felt firm under my feet. For probably 10 meters THAT was my protection: no cams, no nuts, just shoe rubber placed precisely to maximize friction on rock. And it wasn't scary at all. The scariest part of the pitch was a roof at the start where the rock quality was questionable--I don't think I would've fallen there either because I had two good feet and two good hands the whole way, but I didn't want to pull a rock down on my belayer.
2:33 I took a sport climbing course before ever leading, and a good mentor/course should teach you *still on the ground* what issues to anticipate, and get on that habit of checking your own actions. And it's great to have that more experienced person double checking, and guiding you through any uncommon issues that may arise on the wall
Very insightful video! 😁
Perfect timing, i'm about to take a friend trad leading for his first time and want to make sure he's safe.
Great video !
I liked the fun banter. I thought dave you were a very serious person for some reason haha
Fantastic video really enjoy your stuff. Your book is helping me with my fear of falling. One small feedback: In your studio style voiceovers we're heading quite a bit of "mouth noise" it's the sound of a dry mouth but it could just be too close to the mic. Take a listen with headphones 😅
Any chance you live near the Forest of Dean?
solid. nice one.
Dave, love your guidance on all matters climbing, and always will. Having recently been diagnosed with Stage 4, and also now having a stoma (stomach bag) with a bilateral nephrostomy on my lower back…I still want to climb. Could you recommend a 5 point harness 🤷♂️that will allow me to carry on climbing-cheers ( PS-if any of the climbing community know a decent answer to this question-please go ahead🙏🏴
What was the route and crag called please. Another great video dave
1 on 1 hangout with Dave for a day... i am so jealous.
One of us
Am I right in saying the route is cuticle crack - S?
I was at polney last year, lovely climb - fantastic first trad lead from Mike. I remember navigating the top of this wall being scarier than the climbing.
Great watch.
Correct - Cuticle Crack (S)
Could I ask what grade/route this is please, looked lovely
Absolutely loved this analysis. It made me think about my own foot placement which is not my strong point, especially on outdoor rock. I think the reason is that I try to rush it - especially on the few occasions that I've led an easy climb. I want to rush to a spot that looks comfortable. I know what to work on next time I'm out. I was also impressed by Mike's mental state, especially when the nut popped out just behind him.
Nice thoughtful approach to the 'new leader'. I think it's interesting how CAM-biased people have become. It would be interesting to see him lead on nuts and wires only - more thought?
They cost 7 times as much as a nut so clearly they must be 7 times as bomber!
And many new trad leaders may not have been able to afford a pile of cams. Hex's are also under valued i feel especially in limestone
Hey Dave, in ClimbingStuffs latest video you mentioned consuming "a lot of red meat" and thus you refrain from supplementing creatine. Recently the national society for nutrition in Germany released their updated nutritional guidelines, strongly arguing against the consumption of red meat (and vast quantities of animal products in general) due to health and environmental concerns. Additionally, I remember a recent documentary about nutrition that mentioned the mediterranean diet being the current gold standard for a healthy diet backed by scientific evidence. I understand those guidelines are released for the general population rather than top level athletes whose diet may vary substantially. Nevertheless, I'd like to know more about what led you to that decision regarding red meat as I cannot imagine it being a source of creatine outweighs its health disadvantages. Cheers!
I made a whole video on this, with some discussion of the evidence used to formulate dietary guidelines in various countries and why I find the evidence they rely on unconvincing czcams.com/video/Ey93GV-oKQY/video.html
I found this video useful.
BIM